Sir John Wolstenholme, 1st Bart. -- from L&M Companion -- kt 1639. Merchant, of Fenchurch St.; son of the great Jacobean merchant Sir John; appointed Customs Commissioner 1660, reappointed 1667.
Sir John Wolstenholme; created Baronet, 1664. An intimate friend of Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, and Collector Outward for the Port of London. Ob. 1679. -- Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.
Pepys met him once that we know of: "... and so to Mr. Bland’s, the merchant, by invitation, I alone of all our company of this office; where I found all the officers of the Customs, very grave fine gentlemen, and I am very glad to know them; viz. — Sir Job Harvy, Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir John Jacob, Sir Nicholas Crisp, Sir John Harrison, and Sir John Shaw: very good company. " -- which tells us the probable names of the other recipients of the memo. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Wikipedia says the family were Royalists during the Civil War, and were fined so much they had to sell their properties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…
Which makes this note interesting: "The premises on Seething Lane (where Pepys lived during the diary years) had been acquired by the Navy Office in 1654 and had once been the home of Sir John Wolstenholme."
Did I call it ... yes I did. Intoxicated on the job! Shame on you, Pepys, but at least you've acknowledged your back-sliding, and must now hold yourself accountable. We shall see ...
So after this hilarious dinner -- sounds like wine and/or beer was served to me! -- Pepys lets Brouncker and Abigail go back to Woolwich without him, and he stays with Capt. Cocke again.
My guess is that Pepys is being a coward about the impending confrontation(s) about the missing letter, probable angst about Elizabeth's father' illness, and that he is drinking again (my speculation), makes staying close to the Greenwich office and away from Woolwich very attractive.
PART 4 From the 1540s a number of inns existed for travelers.
In 1618, after the arrival of the East India Co., Blackwall Yard was threatened with flooding because of the 'decaye of the wharf by the Taverne' which lay between the yard and Blackwall Stairs.
In 1625 an inn, the 'Signe of the Three Mariners in Blackwall,' was involved in a case about the theft of beef belonging to the East India Co.
By the 1630s 'the signe of the Armes of the East India Company' was run by Zachary Gilby.
The Globe Tavern was built to the north of Blackwall Yard between 1643 and 1656 and was described in 1656 as a 'messuage with stables and hay loft'. The 9 cottages in the tavern yard in the early 18th century had been rebuilt as 12 cottages by the 1840s.
In his will, drawn up in 1683, Sir Henry Johnson, the owner of Blackwall Yard, directed that within a year of his death his son, also a Sir Henry, should build 6 almshouses, at a cost of £300. Each almshouse was to contain 'two rooms and a chimney'. They were to house poor and aged ship-carpenters, each of whom was to receive a weekly allowance of 2s 6d.
Henry Jr. did not carry out the work, but did allow 7 of the 9 cottages in the yard of the Globe Tavern to be occupied rent free 'in the nature of almshouses'. The 6 almshouses were not erected until 1755.
Blackwall Yard stimulated other maritime-related developments. From the early 17th century the west side of Blackwall Causeway was occupied by a ropeground, over 1,200ft long and some 200ft in width.
In 1678, on ropemaker John Bennett's death, it was valued at £40, including sheds and warehouses. Gascoyne's map of 1703 shows a single ropewalk. In 1728 the ropewalk's dimensions were given as 1,122ft by 28ft.
Apart from Blackwall Yard, ship-building and repair were done at a smaller yard next to the Plough Inn.
Also on the 1703 map is a shipyard called Johnson's Upper Dock. This was a small yard with a single dry dock. During the 17th century it was called Coldharbour Dock and Henry Johnson held it on lease from William Stevens, the East India Company's shipwright.
In 1678 Henry Johnson and his partner William Christmas applied to the Conservancy Court for permission 'for a wharf incroached into the river of Thames at Coleharbour nere Blackwall'. An earlier tenant was James Avery, who made repairs for the Navy in 1671.
To the east of Blackwall Causeway, beside Blackwall Yard, was a wharf, which is shown on the map of 1703.
By 1887 Blackwall was described as, "all the houses were condemned and that it was a wretched place inhabited by very poor people, except for 'a doubtful character at the coffee house'. Another man had the dubious occupation of selling 'opera glasses on race courses'." Much of old Blackwall was cleared for the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel, and the river wall was extended several hundred feet into the river creating a new riverfront by 1893.
PART 3 The Elders of Trinity House were consulted about Burrell's proposal to build seafaring men's housing at Blackwall in case the buildings would be 'preiudiciall unto the Ryver'. They regarded the site as a 'fitt and convenient place for houses and buildings ... in regard to the nearness of the East India workes and the number of ships there continually ryding'.
Development at Blackwall continued throughout the century as both the shipyard and overseas trade prospered and the demand for labor in the area increased.
In 1652 the East India Company sold Blackwall Yard, and the shipwright Henry Johnson became the owner of the premises. Johnson extended the yard northwards and eastwards, altering its physical appearance as the demands of the business grew.
With the prosperity of the yard and the provisioning of ships going to the East Indies, a sizeable community grew up at Blackwall by the late 17th century. In 1688, when the inhabitants were ordered to cleanse the common sewer behind their houses, there were at least 42 residents.
Evidence for houses in 17th-century Blackwall is scanty, although an inventory of a prosperous anchor-smith who died there in 1682 shows at least one house was three storeys high. On the ground floor was a kitchen (with a cellar), a parlor, a hall, and possibly a shop. The dining-room, the children's chamber and the 'best room up' were on the first floor, while there were at least four rooms on the second floor.
The decline in the prosperity of the shipyard in the 1720s caused poverty in Blackwall. The area did not expand again until the revival of the yard's fortunes later in the century and the construction of the East India Docks at the beginning of the 19th century.
A map of 1740 shows the extent of development, with buildings on both sides of Blackwall High Street, and to the western side of the causeway.
Blackwall was the site of an ancient timber-framed house which became known during the 19th century as 'Raleigh's House'. Any association with the 16th century courtier and explorer is tenuous, as is the claim that the same property had been the residence of Sebastian Cabot. Raleigh was at Blackwall on many occasions, waiting to go aboard ship or on naval business. Many letters written by him were signed from Blackwall, but are not proof he was a resident.
A photograph of the house taken in 1873 shows it as a jettied timber-framed building infilled with lath and plaster. Wooden carvings of grotesque heads decorated the facade. The floor of the house was, by the late 19th century, below street level and the main entrance was blocked. In 1856 it was suggested the quaint house should be preserved and turned into 'a little almshouse or school.' This was not heeded, and the development of the area led to its demolition by 1881 for the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel.
A permanent structure was planned. A letter sent to Sir Robert Sydney in 1599 states that 'a bridge is to be made over the Thames at Blackwall'. But no bridge down-stream of Tower Bridge was opened until 1991.
It was as an anchorage that spurred Blackwall's development. The moorings were protected by Blackwall Rock, a reef about 300ft long and 150ft wide, which provided shelter for ships anchored offshore. From the 15th century, Blackwall was the place where travelers wishing to avoid the long journey around the Isle of Dogs embarked and disembarked, and it also became a victualling point for outward-bound vessels.
By the late 17th century Blackwall was the most expensive anchorage on the Thames. In 1684 the cost of mooring a ship on one of the three river-chains at Blackwall was 15s per week.
During the 16th century Blackwall was the point of departure for many of the great voyages of discovery, including Frobisher's second voyage in search of the North West Passage.
In 1606, the Virginia Settlers in the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery set sail for America from Blackwall.
Another major element in the development of Blackwall was ship-repairing and later shipbuilding. During the late 15th and early 16th centuries repairs were carried out to both private and royal ships there.
In 1485 the Cely family ship, the Margaret Cely, underwent repairs at Blackwall, and in 1512 the 450-ton Peter Pomegranate (one of the king's ships) was re-decked and caulked there. The materials for repairing vessels of the Henrician navy were brought by barge from London. At that time there were no permanent docks or slips at Blackwall, and so in 1514, 30 laborers and dykers spent four days 'dykynge and castyng' a dock for the Mary Rose when she came to Blackwall for repairs.
It was not until after 1614, when the East India Company's principal shipyard was constructed at Blackwall, that any major building development occurred in this part of Poplar. Although a few inns had already been built beside the river near to Blackwall Stairs, 16th-century Blackwall had not developed as a residential community.
In 1618 William Burrell (the principal shipwright to the East India Company) purchased the causeway at Blackwall for £100. The East India Company wished to buy the eastern side of the causeway which lay alongside its yard, and a battle arose over its ownership. Burrell saw the potential for building of homes for men working in the yard, as he stated that he 'bought the rest with intent to build thereuppon to leave something in certain for the good of his children'.
The area around Blackwall Stairs was known as 'Blackwall' by the 14th century. It was situated on the north bank of the Thames between the River Lea to the east and Coldharbour to the west, in a sheltered loop of the river, before the Thames turns southwards past the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs.
Settlement was confined chiefly to a street, known as Blackwall, which ran parallel to the river towards Coldharbour and was connected to Poplar High Street by Blackwall Causeway, the route today is represented by Brunswick Way.
To the east of the Causeway lay Blackwall Yard, the biggest shipbuilding on the Thames during the 17th and 18th centuries.
In appearance Blackwall resembled Coldharbour. The area was transformed during the 19th century when everything was swept away, so the original river wall now lies several hundred feet inland.
The earliest known reference to the site is in a document of 1362, in which pasture were leased at Godelockhope (Goodluck Hope) and Blackwall. In 1377 it was called Blakewall. The wall was no doubt an artificial bank constructed beside the marsh to keep out the riverwater.
In 1593 John Norden stated that Blackwall took its name from 'the blackeness or darkeness of the bankes or wall at that place'.
Blackwall lay to the south-west of open fields known as the East Marsh of Poplar. A small community of fishermen lived in the area in the 14th century. As far as land communication was concerned it was a dead end, as its only connection with the rest of Poplar was along an ancient trackway called Blackwall Causeway, which in 1725 was 1,122ft long on its west side and 1,076ft on its east, and 26ft wide. (fn. 7)
At the southern end of the causeway were Blackwall Stairs, a common way consisting of a slipway and staircase leading down to the river.
In 1643 there was a complaint that the carts going along the causeway were damaging it, and the East India Company ordered a gate and a stile, 3ft high, to be erected at the northern end. Giles Sheppard was employed as a porter 'to keep the key of their gate' and no carts could pass through without a 2d payment. The money was to be used to repair the causeway.
At the time of the Armada a proposal was put forward to construct a barrier across the Thames at Blackwall to prevent Spanish ships reaching the capital. This was presumably a boom of masts, chains and anchors. Robert Adams' map of the Thames of 1588 shows a barrier and a star-shaped fort at Blackwall, but there is no evidence that the fort was built. Similarly, some large piles running across the river reputedly were discovered in later years, but there is no certainty that the barrier was constructed.
Blackwall’s name presumably derives from the color of the river wall, built in the Middle Ages with its stairs. It was known as Blackwall by the 14th century.
The area was historically part of the parish of Poplar in Middlesex. The area lay in a sheltered loop of the river next to Poplar's East Marsh. The area never had its own Anglican church, so services such as road maintenance were organized by a vestry, and for poor relief it relied on its ecclesiastical parish (of All Saints) Poplar.
The whole Isle of Dogs was referred to as being Poplar or the Poplar District. In the 1950s, the Isle of Dogs excluded the symmetrical part that is its north west, forming the parish of Limehouse and comprises the ancient hamlet of Poplar itself, the old shipbuilding centre of Blackwall, and the former industrial districts of Millwall and Cubitt Town.
Contrary to expectations, the River Thames landmark named Blackwall Point is not in Blackwall district but on the north tip of Greenwich Peninsula, which is south of the Thames. It is named after the Blackwall Reach of the Thames.
Blackwall played a significant part of the ocean-going Port of London, connected with important voyages for over 400 years.
On 7 June 1576, financed by the Muscovy Company, Martin Frobisher set sail from Blackwall, seeking the North West Passage. He landed at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, claiming it as England first possession in the name of Queen Elizabeth I.
Walter Raleigh had a house at Blackwall, and in the early years of the 17th century the port was the main departure point of the English colonization of North America and the West Indies, launched by the London Company.
Until 1987, Blackwall was a centre of shipbuilding and repairing. This activity principally included Blackwall Yard, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth, Canning Town (part of whose works spanned the informal border of the small one-road, one unit deep area of Leamouth), and the Orchard House Yard. Blackwall Yard built the first Blackwall Frigates.
Coldharbour is said to be "[t]he sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterized the river's perimeter". The Coldharbour Conservation Area has several listed historic buildings as well as engineering structures once part of the former docks.
The Thames Path (north bank) National Trail which opened in 1996 is connected to Blackwall; it enters the district at the South Dock Entrance and goes via Coldharbour and Blackwall Way and rejoins the River Thames at Virginia Wharf until the East India Dock at Blackwall Point.
"... to bed; where, though I lay the softest I ever did in my life, with a down bed, after the Danish manner, upon me, ..."
Everyone responded as if this is just about duvets. "I lay" makes me think Pepys was writing about a feather mattress, and "with a down bed" could indicate he had both. This description of bedding a century later may describe Pepys experience:
By 1776, beds in the United States were a complex affair. Wealthy people passed them down from generation to generation.
Jefferson, Franklin and Adams would retired to 4-poster beds enclosed by heavy, warm drapes on all four sides. A bed on display in York, Maine, has curtains and valances which are elaborately embroidered on the inside and outside of the curtain panels. The embroidery on the inside is stitched with saucy pictures from the Bible.
The precursor to today’s bed frame was the bedstead. These sturdy 4-poster frames had a “sacking” of rope or leather crisscrossed between the sides of the bedstead to provide a platform for the mattress.
A prosperous 18th century American slept on a bed made up of several layers. The bottom was a firm “mattress” cushion pad filled with corn husks or horsehair. Next came a featherbed for comfort, plus feather-filled bolsters and pillows. (Featherbeds sag and are hard to lie flat on, so people slept propped up on pillows.) City-folk bought professionally-made feather mattresses from someone like Betsy Ross.
Servants and slaves often slept on straw or hay pallets on the floor. In New England, servants slept in the hallways or unfinished cavities of the house or attic.
People made their bed with cotton or linen sheets, a counterpane (aka blanket or bedspread), and then a woven coverlet or embroidered quilt. In the winter New Englanders topped these off with a bed rugg, a heavy spread made from looped wool, like a carpet.
Every morning two maids stripped the beds to air them, and flipped the mattresses daily, a process that took two people and lots of time.” (You can see the process in an episode of the BBC series If Walls Could Talk.) The beds were remade every evening.
However, "Duvets, known as federbetten or featherbeds in German, are loosely quilted. Broad channels stop the feathers ending up in one corner of the tick, while allowing them to expand and hold warm air." An English traveller, Paul Rycaut, tried to introduce the duvet to his friends around 1700, by sending them 6 lb. bags of down, saying "the coverlet must be quilted high and in large panes, or otherwise it will not be warme". 60 years later Samuel Johnson described an advertisement for: "some Duvets for bed-coverings, of down ... warmer than four or five blankets, and lighter than one." Still, they didn't catch on in England until the late 1800's when the "eider down quilt" started to become known.
I too have been puzzling over the Devil and the Altar jibe. It's not a quote that brings anything up in Google.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper's Parliamentary Bio says: "For the next six years Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley was primarily concerned with routine financial administration, although as a West Country landowner he could not avoid supporting the Irish cattle bill in the Lords in 1666."
His job required him finding creative ways of extracting taxes, which covers the Devil.
So I wondered if the Altar referred to exploitive marriages. His wives were: Margaret Coventry (1639–1649, her death) – sister of our Sir William Coventry. Frances Cecil (1650–1654, her death) – daughter of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter. She was 19 when she died, and left him with two healthy children. Margaret Spencer (1655–1683, his death) – the Earl of Southampton was her uncle.
So he married well, and he was well-connected (his step-grandmother was a Villiars), but there are no comments about any of them being wealthy heiresses, or their doweries benefitting him, or Charles II arranging the match as a favor.
In addition, every bio specifically says he was probably an athiest, if anything a deist. So he was moderate in his religious policy; not chasing Catholics or Quakers or promoting religion in any way.
So it may be a Pepys pun which is lost on us, or a phrase which made everyone laugh at the time. He hasn't told us how much he was drinking at all these very merry lunches and dinners with the boys and Brouncker's mistress. No mention of vow reading and writing, or money in the poor box, for quite a while.
I am surprised Pepys lets Elizabeth socialize with Abigail. Maybe the times makes for strange bedfellows (so to speak). Pepys is enjoying Brouncker's company, so if he gets one, he gets them both.
I have been trying to find out what happened to John Cromwell/Williams. If he was still alive, that would explain why they could not marry, as they obviously were a devoted couple. So far nothing reportable.
'What’s up with the letter Sam “discusses” with his wife?'
We're as perplexed as you. Elizabeth received an anonymous illiterate letter; Mary found it in the bed and gave it to Sam; he reads it and impulsiverly threw it away; now Elizabeth's looking for it; Sam didn't confess he had destroyed it when first asked days ago; Mary wants to leave and isn't saying anything about anything, probably because of Elizabeth's temper tantrums; Sam's now hoping Elizabeth will forget (and in the meantime probaby wants to enjoy his marital benefits).
English statesman Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (1618–1685) was born in (and took his title from) Harlington.
His grandfather was Sir John Bennet (died 1627), who had bought the manor of Dawley from the heirs of Sir Ambrose Coppinger in 1607.
In 1649 Sir John Bennet owned around 600 acres (2.4 km2) of the parish including Dawley House and four farm-houses.
In 1692 the family estate measured around 540 acres, and 602 by the early 18th century. Charles Bennet, 2nd Earl of Tankerville sold the manor of Dawley in 1725.
A monumental inscription in the church features Henry Bennet's older brother, Sir John Bennet, KB, Lord Ossulston, and his wives Elizabeth, daughter of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex and widow of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave (died 1658), along with his second wife Bridget, daughter of John Howe.
"... and who should be here in the quality of a woman but Mrs. Worship’s daughter, Dr. Clerke’s niece, ..."
"a women" probably means a companion.
Pepys knew Timothy Clarke, M.D., one of the original Fellows of the Royal Society. He lived at Whitehall, and knew what was going on at Court, and was married to Frances Clarke.
A 1673 family portrait of Sir Robert Vyner (1631-1688) and his wife Mary (née Whitchurch; d. 1674), the wealthy widow of Sir Thomas Hyde, whom he married in 1665; Bridget Hyde (1662-1734), Lady Vyner's daughter by her first marriage; and Charles Vyner (1666-88), their only son.
The family is shown in the garden of their house, Swakeleys, in Middlesex, which according to Samuel Pepys was 'a place not very moderne in the gardens nor the house, but the most uniforme in all that I ever saw - and some things to excess'.
I saw him hurtling around in a wicker basket, and wondered what would happen to the war effort if he hit a rut and the contraption disintergrated, breaking his neck.
"... they ordered continual fires in London for 3 days and nights at every door."
Ahhh, should have read this more closely. Josselin knew about the order for the fires BEFORE they happened -- either from Newesbooks or announcement circulars sent to Revs. for dissemination from the pulpit on Sundays. Stay tuned ...
Queen Henrietta Maria owned probably the most famous pair of pearl earrings ever. Throughout history, legendary jewels have disappeared because of theft, wars and revolution, or reset until they bear no resemblance to their original design. But her magnificent pair of earrings survive today with pearls and diamonds intact, and a story to match:
Marie de' Medici (1575-1642), the Italian princess who left her native Florence to wed the French king, Henry IV (1552-1610) had them as part of her dowery jewelry.
The de' Medici family was old, powerful and wealthy, and the jewels Marie wore astonished the French court. At this time, pearls were the most valuable of precious gems, rare accidents of nature acquired only at great risk and cost. The two almost perfectly-matched droplet pearls were the new queen's favorite pair of pendant earrings, and were of a quality not been seen before in Paris. (You can see many ladies in 17th century portraits wearing what look like pearls, but most of them were actually coated glass. Marie's were real.) Peter Paul Rubens painted her wearing them in a 1616 portrait.
When Henry IV and Marie de' Medici's youngest daughter, princess Henriette Marie (1609-1699), married our Charles I in 1625, Marie gave the pendant pearl earrings to her as a wedding gift.
Queen Henriette Marie was portrayed many times wearing the earrings, including in a portrait of her as a young wife, painted in 1632 by Sir Anthony van Dyck. But they brought the English queen no luck, as we know. The civil war forced Henriette Marie to flee the country in 1644.
In exile, Queen Henrietta Marie was forced to gradually sell all her jewels, first to help support King Charles' army, and as a widow to keep herself from poverty. As mementos of happier times, the fabulous pearl earrings were among the last jewels to go, finally being purchased by her nephew, Louis XIV (1638-1714) in 1657.
The 19-year-old Louis had fallen desperately in love with 18-year-old Marie Mancini (1639-1715), the Italian niece of Cardinal Jules Mazarin. At first the match was approved by the cardinal and Louis XIV's widowed mother, so Louis presented the pearl earrings to Marie as a token of his intentions. Marie's portrait shows her wearing the pearls along with flowers in her hair.
But politics got in the way, the match was broken off, Louis obediently wed the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa, and Marie Mancini went on to marry the Roman Prince, Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna.
But Marie Mancini kept the pearls! The earrings were so associated with her that they became known as the Mancini Pearls.
There is no record of what happened to the earrings for almost 250 years, until they appeared at Christie's auction house in New York in October, 1979. They were sold to a private collector for $253,000. I'd love to know where they are today.
Comments
Second Reading
About Friday 15 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sir John Wolstenholme, 1st Bart. -- from L&M Companion -- kt 1639. Merchant, of Fenchurch St.; son of the great Jacobean merchant Sir John; appointed Customs Commissioner 1660, reappointed 1667.
Sir John Wolstenholme; created Baronet, 1664. An intimate friend of Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, and Collector Outward for the Port of London. Ob. 1679. -- Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.
Pepys met him once that we know of: "... and so to Mr. Bland’s, the merchant, by invitation, I alone of all our company of this office; where I found all the officers of the Customs, very grave fine gentlemen, and I am very glad to know them; viz. — Sir Job Harvy, Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir John Jacob, Sir Nicholas Crisp, Sir John Harrison, and Sir John Shaw: very good company. "
-- which tells us the probable names of the other recipients of the memo.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Wikipedia says the family were Royalists during the Civil War, and were fined so much they had to sell their properties:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…
Which makes this note interesting:
"The premises on Seething Lane (where Pepys lived during the diary years) had been acquired by the Navy Office in 1654 and had once been the home of Sir John Wolstenholme."
Taken from The Garden at the Navy Office -- By Sue Nicholson http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…
About Friday 15 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Noun -- caper (plural capers)
1. A vessel formerly used by the Dutch; privateer.
From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ca… -- but sadly nothing more to illuminate the discussion.
About Friday 15 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Did I call it ... yes I did. Intoxicated on the job! Shame on you, Pepys, but at least you've acknowledged your back-sliding, and must now hold yourself accountable. We shall see ...
About Sunday 10 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
So after this hilarious dinner -- sounds like wine and/or beer was served to me! -- Pepys lets Brouncker and Abigail go back to Woolwich without him, and he stays with Capt. Cocke again.
My guess is that Pepys is being a coward about the impending confrontation(s) about the missing letter, probable angst about Elizabeth's father' illness, and that he is drinking again (my speculation), makes staying close to the Greenwich office and away from Woolwich very attractive.
About Well Bank
San Diego Sarah • Link
Well(s) Bank is part of the Dogger Bank in the North Sea.
About Blackwall
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 4
From the 1540s a number of inns existed for travelers.
In 1618, after the arrival of the East India Co., Blackwall Yard was threatened with flooding because of the 'decaye of the wharf by the Taverne' which lay between the yard and Blackwall Stairs.
In 1625 an inn, the 'Signe of the Three Mariners in Blackwall,' was involved in a case about the theft of beef belonging to the East India Co.
By the 1630s 'the signe of the Armes of the East India Company' was run by Zachary Gilby.
The Globe Tavern was built to the north of Blackwall Yard between 1643 and 1656 and was described in 1656 as a 'messuage with stables and hay loft'. The 9 cottages in the tavern yard in the early 18th century had been rebuilt as 12 cottages by the 1840s.
In his will, drawn up in 1683, Sir Henry Johnson, the owner of Blackwall Yard, directed that within a year of his death his son, also a Sir Henry, should build 6 almshouses, at a cost of £300. Each almshouse was to contain 'two rooms and a chimney'. They were to house poor and aged ship-carpenters, each of whom was to receive a weekly allowance of 2s 6d.
Henry Jr. did not carry out the work, but did allow 7 of the 9 cottages in the yard of the Globe Tavern to be occupied rent free 'in the nature of almshouses'. The 6 almshouses were not erected until 1755.
Blackwall Yard stimulated other maritime-related developments. From the early 17th century the west side of Blackwall Causeway was occupied by a ropeground, over 1,200ft long and some 200ft in width.
In 1678, on ropemaker John Bennett's death, it was valued at £40, including sheds and warehouses. Gascoyne's map of 1703 shows a single ropewalk. In 1728 the ropewalk's dimensions were given as 1,122ft by 28ft.
Apart from Blackwall Yard, ship-building and repair were done at a smaller yard next to the Plough Inn.
Also on the 1703 map is a shipyard called Johnson's Upper Dock. This was a small yard with a single dry dock. During the 17th century it was called Coldharbour Dock and Henry Johnson held it on lease from William Stevens, the East India Company's shipwright.
In 1678 Henry Johnson and his partner William Christmas applied to the Conservancy Court for permission 'for a wharf incroached into the river of Thames at Coleharbour nere Blackwall'. An earlier tenant was James Avery, who made repairs for the Navy in 1671.
To the east of Blackwall Causeway, beside Blackwall Yard, was a wharf, which is shown on the map of 1703.
By 1887 Blackwall was described as, "all the houses were condemned and that it was a wretched place inhabited by very poor people, except for 'a doubtful character at the coffee house'. Another man had the dubious occupation of selling 'opera glasses on race courses'." Much of old Blackwall was cleared for the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel, and the river wall was extended several hundred feet into the river creating a new riverfront by 1893.
About Blackwall
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
The Elders of Trinity House were consulted about Burrell's proposal to build seafaring men's housing at Blackwall in case the buildings would be 'preiudiciall unto the Ryver'. They regarded the site as a 'fitt and convenient place for houses and buildings ... in regard to the nearness of the East India workes and the number of ships there continually ryding'.
Development at Blackwall continued throughout the century as both the shipyard and overseas trade prospered and the demand for labor in the area increased.
In 1652 the East India Company sold Blackwall Yard, and the shipwright Henry Johnson became the owner of the premises. Johnson extended the yard northwards and eastwards, altering its physical appearance as the demands of the business grew.
With the prosperity of the yard and the provisioning of ships going to the East Indies, a sizeable community grew up at Blackwall by the late 17th century. In 1688, when the inhabitants were ordered to cleanse the common sewer behind their houses, there were at least 42 residents.
Evidence for houses in 17th-century Blackwall is scanty, although an inventory of a prosperous anchor-smith who died there in 1682 shows at least one house was three storeys high. On the ground floor was a kitchen (with a cellar), a parlor, a hall, and possibly a shop. The dining-room, the children's chamber and the 'best room up' were on the first floor, while there were at least four rooms on the second floor.
The decline in the prosperity of the shipyard in the 1720s caused poverty in Blackwall. The area did not expand again until the revival of the yard's fortunes later in the century and the construction of the East India Docks at the beginning of the 19th century.
A map of 1740 shows the extent of development, with buildings on both sides of Blackwall High Street, and to the western side of the causeway.
Blackwall was the site of an ancient timber-framed house which became known during the 19th century as 'Raleigh's House'. Any association with the 16th century courtier and explorer is tenuous, as is the claim that the same property had been the residence of Sebastian Cabot. Raleigh was at Blackwall on many occasions, waiting to go aboard ship or on naval business. Many letters written by him were signed from Blackwall, but are not proof he was a resident.
A photograph of the house taken in 1873 shows it as a jettied timber-framed building infilled with lath and plaster. Wooden carvings of grotesque heads decorated the facade. The floor of the house was, by the late 19th century, below street level and the main entrance was blocked. In 1856 it was suggested the quaint house should be preserved and turned into 'a little almshouse or school.' This was not heeded, and the development of the area led to its demolition by 1881 for the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel.
About Blackwall
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
A permanent structure was planned. A letter sent to Sir Robert Sydney in 1599 states that 'a bridge is to be made over the Thames at Blackwall'. But no bridge down-stream of Tower Bridge was opened until 1991.
It was as an anchorage that spurred Blackwall's development. The moorings were protected by Blackwall Rock, a reef about 300ft long and 150ft wide, which provided shelter for ships anchored offshore. From the 15th century, Blackwall was the place where travelers wishing to avoid the long journey around the Isle of Dogs embarked and disembarked, and it also became a victualling point for outward-bound vessels.
By the late 17th century Blackwall was the most expensive anchorage on the Thames. In 1684 the cost of mooring a ship on one of the three river-chains at Blackwall was 15s per week.
During the 16th century Blackwall was the point of departure for many of the great voyages of discovery, including Frobisher's second voyage in search of the North West Passage.
In 1606, the Virginia Settlers in the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery set sail for America from Blackwall.
Another major element in the development of Blackwall was ship-repairing and later shipbuilding. During the late 15th and early 16th centuries repairs were carried out to both private and royal ships there.
In 1485 the Cely family ship, the Margaret Cely, underwent repairs at Blackwall, and in 1512 the 450-ton Peter Pomegranate (one of the king's ships) was re-decked and caulked there. The materials for repairing vessels of the Henrician navy were brought by barge from London. At that time there were no permanent docks or slips at Blackwall, and so in 1514, 30 laborers and dykers spent four days 'dykynge and castyng' a dock for the Mary Rose when she came to Blackwall for repairs.
It was not until after 1614, when the East India Company's principal shipyard was constructed at Blackwall, that any major building development occurred in this part of Poplar. Although a few inns had already been built beside the river near to Blackwall Stairs, 16th-century Blackwall had not developed as a residential community.
In 1618 William Burrell (the principal shipwright to the East India Company) purchased the causeway at Blackwall for £100. The East India Company wished to buy the eastern side of the causeway which lay alongside its yard, and a battle arose over its ownership. Burrell saw the potential for building of homes for men working in the yard, as he stated that he 'bought the rest with intent to build thereuppon to leave something in certain for the good of his children'.
About Blackwall
San Diego Sarah • Link
Compiled from https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
PART 1
The area around Blackwall Stairs was known as 'Blackwall' by the 14th century. It was situated on the north bank of the Thames between the River Lea to the east and Coldharbour to the west, in a sheltered loop of the river, before the Thames turns southwards past the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs.
Settlement was confined chiefly to a street, known as Blackwall, which ran parallel to the river towards Coldharbour and was connected to Poplar High Street by Blackwall Causeway, the route today is represented by Brunswick Way.
To the east of the Causeway lay Blackwall Yard, the biggest shipbuilding on the Thames during the 17th and 18th centuries.
In appearance Blackwall resembled Coldharbour. The area was transformed during the 19th century when everything was swept away, so the original river wall now lies several hundred feet inland.
The earliest known reference to the site is in a document of 1362, in which pasture were leased at Godelockhope (Goodluck Hope) and Blackwall. In 1377 it was called Blakewall. The wall was no doubt an artificial bank constructed beside the marsh to keep out the riverwater.
In 1593 John Norden stated that Blackwall took its name from 'the blackeness or darkeness of the bankes or wall at that place'.
Blackwall lay to the south-west of open fields known as the East Marsh of Poplar. A small community of fishermen lived in the area in the 14th century. As far as land communication was concerned it was a dead end, as its only connection with the rest of Poplar was along an ancient trackway called Blackwall Causeway, which in 1725 was 1,122ft long on its west side and 1,076ft on its east, and 26ft wide. (fn. 7)
At the southern end of the causeway were Blackwall Stairs, a common way consisting of a slipway and staircase leading down to the river.
In 1643 there was a complaint that the carts going along the causeway were damaging it, and the East India Company ordered a gate and a stile, 3ft high, to be erected at the northern end. Giles Sheppard was employed as a porter 'to keep the key of their gate' and no carts could pass through without a 2d payment. The money was to be used to repair the causeway.
At the time of the Armada a proposal was put forward to construct a barrier across the Thames at Blackwall to prevent Spanish ships reaching the capital. This was presumably a boom of masts, chains and anchors. Robert Adams' map of the Thames of 1588 shows a barrier and a star-shaped fort at Blackwall, but there is no evidence that the fort was built. Similarly, some large piles running across the river reputedly were discovered in later years, but there is no certainty that the barrier was constructed.
About Blackwall
San Diego Sarah • Link
compiled from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bla…
Blackwall’s name presumably derives from the color of the river wall, built in the Middle Ages with its stairs. It was known as Blackwall by the 14th century.
The area was historically part of the parish of Poplar in Middlesex. The area lay in a sheltered loop of the river next to Poplar's East Marsh. The area never had its own Anglican church, so services such as road maintenance were organized by a vestry, and for poor relief it relied on its ecclesiastical parish (of All Saints) Poplar.
The whole Isle of Dogs was referred to as being Poplar or the Poplar District. In the 1950s, the Isle of Dogs excluded the symmetrical part that is its north west, forming the parish of Limehouse and comprises the ancient hamlet of Poplar itself, the old shipbuilding centre of Blackwall, and the former industrial districts of Millwall and Cubitt Town.
Contrary to expectations, the River Thames landmark named Blackwall Point is not in Blackwall district but on the north tip of Greenwich Peninsula, which is south of the Thames. It is named after the Blackwall Reach of the Thames.
Blackwall played a significant part of the ocean-going Port of London, connected with important voyages for over 400 years.
On 7 June 1576, financed by the Muscovy Company, Martin Frobisher set sail from Blackwall, seeking the North West Passage. He landed at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, claiming it as England first possession in the name of Queen Elizabeth I.
Walter Raleigh had a house at Blackwall, and in the early years of the 17th century the port was the main departure point of the English colonization of North America and the West Indies, launched by the London Company.
Until 1987, Blackwall was a centre of shipbuilding and repairing. This activity principally included Blackwall Yard, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth, Canning Town (part of whose works spanned the informal border of the small one-road, one unit deep area of Leamouth), and the Orchard House Yard. Blackwall Yard built the first Blackwall Frigates.
Coldharbour is said to be "[t]he sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterized the river's perimeter". The Coldharbour Conservation Area has several listed historic buildings as well as engineering structures once part of the former docks.
The Thames Path (north bank) National Trail which opened in 1996 is connected to Blackwall; it enters the district at the South Dock Entrance and goes via Coldharbour and Blackwall Way and rejoins the River Thames at Virginia Wharf until the East India Dock at Blackwall Point.
About Saturday 9 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... to bed; where, though I lay the softest I ever did in my life, with a down bed, after the Danish manner, upon me, ..."
Everyone responded as if this is just about duvets. "I lay" makes me think Pepys was writing about a feather mattress, and "with a down bed" could indicate he had both. This description of bedding a century later may describe Pepys experience:
By 1776, beds in the United States were a complex affair. Wealthy people passed them down from generation to generation.
Jefferson, Franklin and Adams would retired to 4-poster beds enclosed by heavy, warm drapes on all four sides.
A bed on display in York, Maine, has curtains and valances which are elaborately embroidered on the inside and outside of the curtain panels. The embroidery on the inside is stitched with saucy pictures from the Bible.
The precursor to today’s bed frame was the bedstead. These sturdy 4-poster frames had a “sacking” of rope or leather crisscrossed between the sides of the bedstead to provide a platform for the mattress.
A prosperous 18th century American slept on a bed made up of several layers. The bottom was a firm “mattress” cushion pad filled with corn husks or horsehair. Next came a featherbed for comfort, plus feather-filled bolsters and pillows. (Featherbeds sag and are hard to lie flat on, so people slept propped up on pillows.) City-folk bought professionally-made feather mattresses from someone like Betsy Ross.
Servants and slaves often slept on straw or hay pallets on the floor. In New England, servants slept in the hallways or unfinished cavities of the house or attic.
People made their bed with cotton or linen sheets, a counterpane (aka blanket or bedspread), and then a woven coverlet or embroidered quilt. In the winter New Englanders topped these off with a bed rugg, a heavy spread made from looped wool, like a carpet.
Every morning two maids stripped the beds to air them, and flipped the mattresses daily, a process that took two people and lots of time.” (You can see the process in an episode of the BBC series If Walls Could Talk.) The beds were remade every evening.
see https://www.saatvamattress.com/bl…
However, "Duvets, known as federbetten or featherbeds in German, are loosely quilted. Broad channels stop the feathers ending up in one corner of the tick, while allowing them to expand and hold warm air." An English traveller, Paul Rycaut, tried to introduce the duvet to his friends around 1700, by sending them 6 lb. bags of down, saying "the coverlet must be quilted high and in large panes, or otherwise it will not be warme". 60 years later Samuel Johnson described an advertisement for: "some Duvets for bed-coverings, of down ... warmer than four or five blankets, and lighter than one." Still, they didn't catch on in England until the late 1800's when the "eider down quilt" started to become known.
from http://www.oldandinteresting.com/…
About Saturday 9 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
That's a wonderful quote. Love it.
I too have been puzzling over the Devil and the Altar jibe. It's not a quote that brings anything up in Google.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper's Parliamentary Bio says:
"For the next six years Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley was primarily concerned with routine financial administration, although as a West Country landowner he could not avoid supporting the Irish cattle bill in the Lords in 1666."
His job required him finding creative ways of extracting taxes, which covers the Devil.
So I wondered if the Altar referred to exploitive marriages.
His wives were:
Margaret Coventry (1639–1649, her death) – sister of our Sir William Coventry.
Frances Cecil (1650–1654, her death) – daughter of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter. She was 19 when she died, and left him with two healthy children.
Margaret Spencer (1655–1683, his death) – the Earl of Southampton was her uncle.
So he married well, and he was well-connected (his step-grandmother was a Villiars), but there are no comments about any of them being wealthy heiresses, or their doweries benefitting him, or Charles II arranging the match as a favor.
In addition, every bio specifically says he was probably an athiest, if anything a deist. So he was moderate in his religious policy; not chasing Catholics or Quakers or promoting religion in any way.
So it may be a Pepys pun which is lost on us, or a phrase which made everyone laugh at the time. He hasn't told us how much he was drinking at all these very merry lunches and dinners with the boys and Brouncker's mistress. No mention of vow reading and writing, or money in the poor box, for quite a while.
About Saturday 9 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
I am surprised Pepys lets Elizabeth socialize with Abigail. Maybe the times makes for strange bedfellows (so to speak). Pepys is enjoying Brouncker's company, so if he gets one, he gets them both.
I have been trying to find out what happened to John Cromwell/Williams. If he was still alive, that would explain why they could not marry, as they obviously were a devoted couple. So far nothing reportable.
About Friday 8 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
'What’s up with the letter Sam “discusses” with his wife?'
We're as perplexed as you. Elizabeth received an anonymous illiterate letter; Mary found it in the bed and gave it to Sam; he reads it and impulsiverly threw it away; now Elizabeth's looking for it; Sam didn't confess he had destroyed it when first asked days ago; Mary wants to leave and isn't saying anything about anything, probably because of Elizabeth's temper tantrums; Sam's now hoping Elizabeth will forget (and in the meantime probaby wants to enjoy his marital benefits).
It's a stupid Sam situation (not his first) and he'll never 'fess up now. For the first salvo: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Harlington, Middlesex
San Diego Sarah • Link
English statesman Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (1618–1685) was born in (and took his title from) Harlington.
His grandfather was Sir John Bennet (died 1627), who had bought the manor of Dawley from the heirs of Sir Ambrose Coppinger in 1607.
In 1649 Sir John Bennet owned around 600 acres (2.4 km2) of the parish including Dawley House and four farm-houses.
In 1692 the family estate measured around 540 acres, and 602 by the early 18th century. Charles Bennet, 2nd Earl of Tankerville sold the manor of Dawley in 1725.
A monumental inscription in the church features Henry Bennet's older brother, Sir John Bennet, KB, Lord Ossulston, and his wives Elizabeth, daughter of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex and widow of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave (died 1658), along with his second wife Bridget, daughter of John Howe.
For info on other 17th century personalities who called Harlington home, see the end of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Har…
About Mrs Worship (jun.)
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and who should be here in the quality of a woman but Mrs. Worship’s daughter, Dr. Clerke’s niece, ..."
"a women" probably means a companion.
Pepys knew Timothy Clarke, M.D., one of the original Fellows of the Royal Society. He lived at Whitehall, and knew what was going on at Court, and was married to Frances Clarke.
About Ald. Robert Vyner
San Diego Sarah • Link
A 1673 family portrait of Sir Robert Vyner (1631-1688) and his wife Mary (née Whitchurch; d. 1674), the wealthy widow of Sir Thomas Hyde, whom he married in 1665; Bridget Hyde (1662-1734), Lady Vyner's daughter by her first marriage; and Charles Vyner (1666-88), their only son.
The family is shown in the garden of their house, Swakeleys, in Middlesex, which according to Samuel Pepys was 'a place not very moderne in the gardens nor the house, but the most uniforme in all that I ever saw - and some things to excess'.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collection…
About Tuesday 5 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
StanB, I like your image better than mine.
I saw him hurtling around in a wicker basket, and wondered what would happen to the war effort if he hit a rut and the contraption disintergrated, breaking his neck.
About Tuesday 5 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... they ordered continual fires in London for 3 days and nights at every door."
Ahhh, should have read this more closely. Josselin knew about the order for the fires BEFORE they happened -- either from Newesbooks or announcement circulars sent to Revs. for dissemination from the pulpit on Sundays. Stay tuned ...
About Pearls
San Diego Sarah • Link
Queen Henrietta Maria owned probably the most famous pair of pearl earrings ever. Throughout history, legendary jewels have disappeared because of theft, wars and revolution, or reset until they bear no resemblance to their original design. But her magnificent pair of earrings survive today with pearls and diamonds intact, and a story to match:
Marie de' Medici (1575-1642), the Italian princess who left her native Florence to wed the French king, Henry IV (1552-1610) had them as part of her dowery jewelry.
The de' Medici family was old, powerful and wealthy, and the jewels Marie wore astonished the French court. At this time, pearls were the most valuable of precious gems, rare accidents of nature acquired only at great risk and cost. The two almost perfectly-matched droplet pearls were the new queen's favorite pair of pendant earrings, and were of a quality not been seen before in Paris. (You can see many ladies in 17th century portraits wearing what look like pearls, but most of them were actually coated glass. Marie's were real.) Peter Paul Rubens painted her wearing them in a 1616 portrait.
When Henry IV and Marie de' Medici's youngest daughter, princess Henriette Marie (1609-1699), married our Charles I in 1625, Marie gave the pendant pearl earrings to her as a wedding gift.
Queen Henriette Marie was portrayed many times wearing the earrings, including in a portrait of her as a young wife, painted in 1632 by Sir Anthony van Dyck. But they brought the English queen no luck, as we know. The civil war forced Henriette Marie to flee the country in 1644.
In exile, Queen Henrietta Marie was forced to gradually sell all her jewels, first to help support King Charles' army, and as a widow to keep herself from poverty. As mementos of happier times, the fabulous pearl earrings were among the last jewels to go, finally being purchased by her nephew, Louis XIV (1638-1714) in 1657.
The 19-year-old Louis had fallen desperately in love with 18-year-old Marie Mancini (1639-1715), the Italian niece of Cardinal Jules Mazarin. At first the match was approved by the cardinal and Louis XIV's widowed mother, so Louis presented the pearl earrings to Marie as a token of his intentions. Marie's portrait shows her wearing the pearls along with flowers in her hair.
But politics got in the way, the match was broken off, Louis obediently wed the Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa, and Marie Mancini went on to marry the Roman Prince, Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna.
But Marie Mancini kept the pearls! The earrings were so associated with her that they became known as the Mancini Pearls.
There is no record of what happened to the earrings for almost 250 years, until they appeared at Christie's auction house in New York in October, 1979. They were sold to a private collector for $253,000. I'd love to know where they are today.
Pictures and more info at https://www.internetstones.com/ma…